THE SPARROW}; ITS VIRTUES. 181 
high those outgoings may be,-the investment, if we 
may so Call it, is a profitable one. And I trust that 
I have succeeded in showing that, in the case of the 
sparrow, the receipts undoubtedly preponderate over 
the expenditure, and that for the wages which it 
exacts a fair equivalent of work is obtained. 
Not that I wish to recommend that the bird should 
in all cases and at all times be encouraged. During 
harvest, for instance, it is an unmitigated nuisance, 
and must, if possible, be kept at a distance from the 
cornfields. But I do say that, even at such times, 
the farmer best consults his own interests by merely 
scaring the bird away in place of destroying it, and 
that sooner or later he will reap his reward for his 
wise forbearance. 
As regards the domestic life of the sparrow there is 
but little to chronicle. Who jis not familiar with the 
large, loosely-built, and untidy nest which is placed 
in a tree, beneath the eaves of a house, or in the 
thousand and one situations which seem almost equally 
acceptable to the bird? Asa general rule, the nest 
is built at some little height from the ground, but 
such is by no means invariably the case, and I have 
found it situated in a hole within easy reach of my 
hand. Five eggs, of a whitish colour marked with 
grey and brown, are laid, and there are always two, 
and sometimes three broods in the course of the year. 
The general habits of the bird necessarily depend 
very much upon the nature of its surroundings: a 
sparrow in the city is a different creature from a 
